Blood recovery in the surgical environment or during trauma can be performed by a variety of processes. Blood lost from a surgical site is commonly required to be processed into a cell concentrate prior to readministration. With blood being generally in short supply and increasingly becoming a rechargeable commodity, there is an increasing interest in recovering blood that would have traditionally been lost to surgical drainage.
The recovery of blood commonly requires a suction system and a centrifuge device to concentrate the blood, which necessitates the purchase and maintenance of expensive and cumbersome equipment.
Additionally, the current concern in both the medical and public sectors regarding hospital or blood-borne infections has triggered a greater interest in auto-transfusion during surgical procedures.
Typically, in the case of post-cardiac surgery, there is a need to concentrate the blood of a haemodeficient patient from a concentration of approximately 22% packed cell volume to about 70 to 80% packed cell volume.
It is an object of at least one embodiment of at least one aspect of the present invention to seek to obviate or at least mitigate one or more disadvantages in the prior art.
It is an object of at least one embodiment of at least one aspect of the present invention to provide a convenient single use disposible device for processing blood, suitable for flat-pack storage, and which eliminates the need for expensive hardware.
It is an object of at least one embodiment of at least one aspect of the present invention to provide a blood-processing device which produces a stabilised waste product.
It is an object of at least one embodiment of at least one aspect of the present invention to provide a device for processing blood into a concentrate comprising cellular components. This may be particularly useful in third world or military field environments where access to expensive centrifugal processing technologies is restricted, but there remains a significant need for processed donor blood products.
It is an object of at least one embodiment of at least one aspect of the present invention to provide a system comprising a blood-processing device; and agitation means, e.g. an orbital shaker, for improving the efficiency of the blood-processing device.
It is an object of at least one embodiment of at least one aspect of the present invention to provide a method of concentrating blood or removing specific blood components comprising separating or filtering at least one component from the fluid through at least one separation or filtration member, wherein the at least one component separated or filtered from the fluid may be permanently removed or retained by a superabsorbent material.
It is an object of at least one embodiment of at least one aspect of the present invention to provide a use of a superabsorbent material for separating or removing at least one component from a fluid such as blood.